How Many Crimes Should Illegal Aliens Be Allowed to Commit?

Jeanette Vizguerra is a Denver resident and mother of three. She is also an illegal alien.

In 2013, the Obama administration provided Vizguerra’s daughter, Tania, protection from deportation under the President’s executive order called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This program shields illegal aliens from deportation if they were brought into the country as children.

This paperwork expired in early February but Jeanette Vizguerra is still required to check in at her local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. If this ever happens, she will likely be deported. In fact, one of the reasons for the deportation order is the fact that she has refused to check-in.

The reason that she is on the fast-track for deportation is because she is a convicted criminal. In 2009, she was cited for driving without a license, registration, or insurance. As police investigated more, they discovered that Vizguerra had used a fake Social Security number in order to get a job.

This discovery escalated the investigation and Vizguerra was charged with a slurry of identity theft felonies. She agreed to a plea deal and the prosecutor dropped most of the charges. Jeanette Vizguerra pled guilty to “possession of a forged instrument.” Had she gone to trial, she would have been convicted of multiple felonies. The fact that she took a plea deal for a misdemeanor doesn’t change that.

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing Federal immigration agents to prioritize deportation for illegal aliens with criminal records. Jeanette Vizguerra falls under this executive order.

Many in the media today are focusing on Vizguerra’s story as a mother’s struggle. I attended the press conference this afternoon at Denver’s First Unitarian Church. I asked what she felt about her critics’ argument that she broke the law. Her answer was that she broke the law to feed her family. No, that is not an excuse for using fraudulent identity documents.

Media outlets like the CNN are focusing on the personal side of the story and how she is a mother to three young children. This is valuable, but it doesn’t change the fact that she committed a crime other than entering the country illegally.

Yesterday, a Kansas Appeals Court ruled against an illegal alien in a similar circumstance who used a made up social security number on her job application forms. What the illegal alien didn’t know is that the number they thought was made up actually belonged to Deborah Truesdale, who lives in Boulder, Colorado. These are not victimless crimes.

No one can deny the human impact of cases like this. A mother is being separated from her children. This is heart-wrenching, no matter which side of the issue you fall on.

But the important question is this: How many crimes should an illegal alien be allowed to commit before they are deported?

Liberals today are saying that the answer is more than one. So how many?

If one felony identity theft conviction isn’t enough to justify deporting an illegal alien, how many identities must they steal before they can be removed from the country? How many documents should they be allowed to forge?

How many times should an illegal alien be allowed to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs before they are deported? How many car accidents should they be allowed to get into without carrying vehicular insurance?

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama gave a speech outlining his plan for prioritizing immigration enforcement. He bragged about how his administration had increased the number of criminals deported.

“That’s why over the past six years deportations of criminals are up 80 percent, and that’s why we’re going to keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who’s working hard to provide for her kids.”

The fact is that Jeanette Vizguerra, and others like her, fall into both of these categories.

She is a mom working hard to provide for her children, there is no denying that. But she is also a criminal. She broke the law. She pled guilty to possession of forged documents and she has no legal right to remain in the country.

If that isn’t enough to justify her deportation, what is? How many forgery and fraud convictions would be enough to justify deportation?